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Aram Valesyan

Aram Valesyan

Senior Associate

Aram Valesyan is a banking and finance lawyer specialising in infrastructure, leveraged, acquisition and general corporate finance. Aram has extensive experience advising sponsors, borrowers and financiers across a broad range of domestic and cross-border financing transactions.

Aram has advised a wide variety of clients including infrastructure asset managers, private equity sponsors, major corporates, portfolio companies, global and domestic banks, private credit lenders and other market participants in relation to infrastructure financings, acquisitions, take-privates, refinancings and general financing matters. Aram’s experience spans a range of sectors, including energy and infrastructure, financial services, healthcare and pharmaceuticals, transport and logistics and real estate. Aram has also spent seven months on secondment to leading European mid-market private credit investor Alcentra, now part of Benefit Street Partners.

Aram began his career at MinterEllisonRuddWatts. Prior to returning to New Zealand, Aram spent five years at elite global law firms Kirkland & Ellis and Clifford Chance in London, where he advised on a variety of complex, high-profile transactions across Europe, the Americas and Asia.

Career highlights

Advising EQT Infrastructure, a leading global infrastructure investor, on various financing matters – these included among others the financing for its acquisition of Trescal, a global leader in calibration laboratories, the $1.1 billion sustainability-linked infrastructure debt financing of its portfolio company Lumos, a US fiber-to-the-home provider, and its joint venture with T-Mobile to acquire Lumos.

Advising the funders to Cityfibre, the UK's largest independent carrier-neutral full fibre platform, on its £4.9 billion refinancing. The funders comprised NatWest, Société Générale, Crédit Agricole CIB, BBVA, Intesa Sanpaolo, ING, and SEB as underwriters, with ABN AMRO, Lloyds Bank, M&G Investments, and the UK Infrastructure Bank taking cornerstone commitments.

Advising Igneo Infrastructure Partners on the financing for its acquisition of City Green Light – a major Italian independent public lighting and smart city operator.

Advising global private equity investor Advent International on various transactions including on the syndicated TLB financing for its carve-out acquisition of a majority stake in Reckitt’s Essential Home business (valued at up to USD4.8 billion), ongoing syndicated TLB financing matters relating to its portfolio company TK Elevator, and, together with Cinven, on the combination of TK Elevator and KONE in a cash and share transaction – implying a total enterprise value for TKE of €29.4 billion, making it the largest majority sponsor-led private equity transaction in Europe to date.

Advising a consortium led by Starwood Capital Group, Sixth Street and SSW Partners, and which also included QIA, Warburg Pincus and the founders on their proposal to privatise ESR from the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. ESR Group is Asia-Pacific’s leading new economy real estate investment manager. The proposal valued ESR at HK$55.2 billion (US$7.1 billion) on an equity value basis, making it the largest privatisation from the Hong Kong Stock Exchange since 2021.

Achievements and recognition
  • Tier 1 team, Banking and Finance, The Legal 500 Asia-Pacific